Are there any laws that regulate credit bureaus?
The Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1971 was an effort by Congress to regulate the compilation of information on individuals in order to offer legal protection of their privacy while not impeding the credit granting process. In other words, legally a consumer did not have the right, before the law was passed, to know what was in his file. Credit grantors were not as limited in the purposes for which they could gain access to a person’s record. However, the credit reporting industry, under the leadership of its international trade association, Associated Credit Bureaus, Inc., already was policing itself. Most bureaus had been reviewing files with consumers for years without charge. And most had agreements with their grantor customers that reports were to be ordered only for the purposes of granting credit or employment. The Fair Credit Reporting Act gave all this the force of the law. Furthermore, the credit industry was instrumental in helping Congress pass the bill.
